5 The Dance Movement

Abstract The quartets invariably include an interior minuet-trio complex (each of the ten early, five-movement cycles has two). Whereas a moderate, beat-marking pace prevails among earlier quartets, a trend toward increasingly fast tempos can be discerned, along with the tendency toward a measure- rather than beat-oriented rhythmic impulse. Among the movements' binary and rounded binary forms, internal proportions as well as thematic and tonal correspondences are varied, and there are examples of a vastly extended second part. Throughout the repertory, adherence to conventional practices serves as a backdrop for novelties of rhythm, texture, thematic process, and relationship between minuet and trio. In a small but distinctive group of dance movements, an open-ended trio connects to the return of the minuet proper without a break.